Holding AWS MSP validation already puts you at Advanced or Premier tier, which gives you access to Market Development Funds (MDF). MDF exists to offset the cost of demand-generation marketing, the campaigns built to bring in new customers and build your sales pipeline.
MDF pays out in one of two ways.
The first is cash: AWS reimburses up to half the cost of a marketing activity once it’s finished and already approved.
The second is AWS Promotional Credit. Instead of cash, AWS applies a credit straight to your own AWS bill. If part of running the campaign meant using AWS infrastructure, hosting a landing page or sending email through an AWS service, for example, that credit covers what that usage would have cost you.
Either way, the order is the same. Get the activity approved first, run it and pay for it yourself, then claim the reimbursement or credit afterward. MDF was never meant to fund an entire campaign on its own. Think of it as AWS covering part of what you would’ve had to pay for fully on your own.
AWS covers a specific, defined list of marketing activities under MDF:
- Email campaigns
- Telemarketing
- Display advertising and search marketing
- Paid social media
- Customer-facing webinars and events
Run something on this list, get it approved before you spend, and you have a genuine claim.
How much MDF funding opens up depends on three things: how far you’ve progressed along your AWS Partner Path, which AWS Specializations you’ve earned, and which AWS Partner programs you’re actively part of.
Your AWS MSP validation already counts toward that. Progress further on any of these, and more funding opens up.
Activity approvals run through the AWS Partner Funding Portal (APFP), the same system that then tracks the claim once it’s submitted.
But none of it works until AWS has a completed Payee Central account on file: your bank details registered, and the tax interview finished. Skip that, and there’s nowhere for the cash or credit to land, no matter how clean the rest of the request is.
Pro tip: Getting Payee Central sorted is a one-time setup. So get it done before you even have a campaign ready to submit to avoid mistakes and delays.
AWS Partner Marketing Central has the full eligibility detail, along with where your business currently stands against it.
Pro tip: Check your standing before you finalize next quarter’s marketing budget, not after the spend is already committed. Knowing what AWS will co-fund changes what you can afford to run.
Checking your standing on Partner Marketing Central takes a few minutes. Skipping it means missing the opportunity before it starts. Getting the request itself wrong afterward gets it rejected outright, regardless of what you were eligible for.
That’s where Blacfox can help. We’ll guide you, and make sure the request goes in right the first time instead of coming back rejected.
Contact us today to find out more.
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